Pacification
by davidv30
Summary: The Haddocks of Berk want peace, however they have conflicting views on how it should be achieved; Stoic believes as long as they live the dragons will attack. but Hiccup has never wanted to kill a dragon, he wants to seek out an alternative, he wants to pacify both dragons and vikings.
1. Chapter 1

AN: First time writing anything of this sorts but I just had to get it out of my head.

PS; I don't own anything, Cressida Cowell and DreamWorks own HTTYD and my mind just played with the possibilities.

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Welcome to Berk, we are 12 days not of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. We have hunting, fishing and a charming view of the sunset; the biggest deterrent to our tourism industry is the regular attacks from a group of large flying reptiles.

My name is Hiccup, great name I know, and for that past 5 years I have attempted to act out my plan to end the war. You see ever since my mother died in a raid both my dad and I have wished for an end to this war. However where he sees the need to end the dragons as a race, I only wish to end the fighting.

During the first year of my attempts I have noted something peculiar about the dragons, any time a dragon receives a major blow to the head it will, as long as it wasn't killed, look around like their confused to what is going on. Usually they're killed by one of Vikings, except this one nightmare that fought back and escaped with only a large scar over its left shoulder. My plan, should I ever go through, consists of capturing a dragon, preferably the scarred nightmare, somewhere outside the village where I can study just how intelligent they are and work on a way to cooperate.

On this lovely autumn day I'm taking advantage of the clear weather to test out my latest attempt of a mechanical bola launcher. Setting up behind the forge a nicely sized tree is far enough away for the bola to spin up properly but close enough so I don't need to aim. Loading the rope and balls into the chamber and grunting in the effort to draw the bowstring I ready myself to test the core part of my plan.

Aiming at the tree I pull the trigger and CRACK. The chamber splits and the bola launches out the side and before I can react the result of the failed launch is a 4 foot hole in a nearby home.

Cringing I look over the remains of the launcher, the tension had been too high leaving the left-hand side of the barrel in splinters and the string broken, sighing I turn around to pack up and see the noise has attracted an audience and at the front with a stern glare is our chief and my father, stoic the vast.

"Hi dad" I grin sheepishly trying to ignore his scowl. "Hiccup, how many times have I told you to test your inventions outside the village?" I look away and shrug my shoulders before looking back. "Um, one of the axles on my cart is broken so I couldn't get my toolkit into the forest." "Do you realize how much damage you are doing?" he accuses. "It's just one house." My retort just seems to make him angrier. "One house that you have damaged 8 times in the last week, we can't keep wasting time and resources that we need to prepare for the dragons." He sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose before continuing "I expect that house to be repaired by tonight, understood?" agreeing to the punishment and thankful for getting off lightly I nod my head and go back into the forge for my tools.

The repair itself was easy to complete with the use of a portable crane to fit and seal a pre-made panel. With that out of the way I use the last few hours of the day replacing the broken axle on my large four wheeled pedal cart, as I'm not going to get away with testing in town again, and leave the launcher for tomorrow.

Walking into the great hall I stop by my father's table to let him know the house has been repaired and proceed towards an empty corner of the hall picking up a plate of fish and cabbage preparing to spend some time alone with my mind. Halfway through my meal I notice the village teens have entered the hall and are making their way towards my table.

Before I could decide if leaving would be a good idea Snotlout is slamming his mug on the other side of the table, Astrid swings her axe claiming the seat opposite me before leaving for her food and the twins are fighting over who sits at the table's end. Fishlegs is the only one who acknowledges my presence and tries to start a conversion "so, I heard that you made another hole in Acks house, isn't this the 7th time this week?" "Actually it's the 8th" when he looks at me confused as to how I add "a couple of days ago the crane fell into the house just after I finished repairing it." The atmosphere becomes awkward as Astrid returns, not looking happy to share the table, I abandon the rest of my meal before anything can start and leave for home. Arriving, I add a log to the hearth and head upstairs to retire for the night.

I wake to the sound of the great horn signifying a dragon raid. Heading downstairs I catch my dad grabbing his hammer by the door "Hiccup stay here" he orders before running out. Heading to the door I open it to see a monstrous nightmare about to flame in my direction. Slamming the door I feel the heat of the blast start to seep through before fading, I reopen the door to find the dragon had left and part of the porch is on fire, quickly grabbing the pail left by the hearth I rush out and douse the flames before they can spread.

Looking around at the ensuring battle I spot the scarred nightmare holding lookout above the battle before swooping onto the northern catapult. Thinking this could be the raid I step off the porch before remembering the accident with the bola launcher. Sighing I decide it would be better to do as told and stay indoors, closing the door I see the nightmare jump away as night fury fire decimated the catapult.

After a while when the sun was starting to rise the sounds of battle faded. Only to be replaced by stoic calling my name and for me to come out. Making my way down the walkway I see dad in the middle of town with a disappointed look on his face. Deducting I couldn't be in trouble as I did as he ordered I made my way with my head up. As I approach I notice that his mood doesn't shift and start to get a bit nervous.

"Where were you during the raid hiccup?" he sternly asks, "I was at home" "no you weren't, Horak saw you exit the house with a bucket early in the raid. So where were you?" I stopped and stared at stoic trying to understand why he had just called me a liar. "Don't try to blame me for the damage, I left the house to stop a fire on the front porch from spreading. I don't know, about you but I don't like sitting in burning buildings." Stoic stops and looks around at burned buildings. "Fine, but we will continue this once the village is in order and the town meeting is over; just go back to the house." He looks to Gobber "make sure he stays there" with that he turns to start a proper inspection of the damage and I start my walk back towards the house.

Halfway up the slope I start arguing with Gobber, "I really didn't leave the house" "of course hiccup" "it's like he never listens to anything I say." "Well, it runs in the family" "and when he does, it's with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich" we reach the front door, I turn around take a breath and prepare to impersonate my father, "excuse me barmaid, I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring, I order an extra-large boy with meaty arms, this, this is a talking fishbone." This apparently stumps Gobber as he takes a second to respond "you've got this all wrong, it's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand." I stop and stare at the unintentional insult before thanking him and turning for the door, I'm stopped from closing the door by a Gobber grabbing my shoulder. "Sorry kid but I'm staying with you till the meeting" "don't you have work at the forge?" "Nothing that can't wait till tomorrow, the town has enough nails to rebuild itself twice and we still have that surplus of weapons available."

Inside we sit down at the table and spend the time going over the blueprints for my latest inventions. A possible use for the steam engine, how to get the tension correct in the bola launcher and my new designs for wrist mounted crossbow, Gobber complains it would be useless against dragons but I only intend it for smaller targets. At around noon stoic stops by to collect Gobber for the town meeting and promising to have that talk then he returns.

When he returns I'm sitting on the porch watching the sun set and I notice he has that look in his eye indicating he has an idea in his head. Leading me inside stoic turns and claps his hands "Hiccup, I believe it's time for you to learn to fight dragons." I wonder where this has come from as I have made it clear before I want nothing to do with killing dragons. Being confused I can only respond, "What?" "Dragon training, you start in the morning" he lifts an axe from its stand and hands it to me "you will need this" "but I have never wanted to fight dragons" "of course you do, all Vikings fight dragons" I swing the axe hard into the floor sticking it there and yell "I WILL NOT GO TO DRAGON TRAINING" "YES YOU WILL, YOU LIVE UNDER MY ROOF AND IN MY VILLAGE, YOU WILL LIVE BY MY RULES" stoic takes a breath before continuing "and by my rules all teens will be attending dragon training from tomorrow at noon. Deal?" looking up, I stifle a laugh as his face is as red as his beard before I decide it's time to concede "deal." He reaches into his room to collect a basket. "Good, train hard and I'll be back, probably." As he leaves the house I reply. "And I'll be here, maybe" but my thoughts then go to his remark about his village his rules and I mumble "maybe not."

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Movie timeline comparison - hiccup has shot down a night fury, released said night fury and has relented to join dragon training.

I know it isn't used in this chapter but for future reference;

"This is Norse"  
_'This is Thought''  
_"{This is Dragonese}"


	2. Chapter 2

This was originally written as 2 separate chapters, however as the length couldn't be increased i decided to merge them.

Thanks for the surprisingly positive feedback for the previous chapter and i hope i don't disappoint any expectations with this or any future chapters.

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Thinking it over I decide that leaving could actually work. I quickly gather what I can from within the house into a basket, my design blueprints, notebooks, spare clothing and as much dried food as I can fit and leave it by the door. With that out of the way I head back to my room to get some sleep for my last night in the village.

I awake early next morning the excitement not letting me rest any longer. Grabbing the basket and heading out the door I notice smoke coming from the forge, '_great this means I'll have to go past Gobber to get my stuff'_. Upon entering the forge he greets me "you're up early lad, exited for your first day of dragon training?" "Yep that's me, all excited about taking on large fire breathing reptiles with my bare hands" I say sliding into my workshop. He sends a reply my way but I ignore it, I need to work fast.

Repositioning the cart in the middle of the room I use the crane to load my steam engine and wrecked bola launcher into the back, check that my toolkit is secure and glance around the room for anything else I might need. Upon further thought I throw an additional axe, wood saw and some of Gobber's spare leather in back before unlocking the back door, checking if anyone is around to see and begin pulling the cart up the trail to my usual testing grounds.

When I arrive to the clearing I stop the cart by the lake and bend down to wash the sweat off my face, looking up to see the sun at its peak '_I wonder if anyone will come looking for me_'. I shake the thought away, the other teens would keep Gobber busy with training and by the time that's over it will be too late to go this far out of town, plus I need to be thinking about setting up my new home.

Estimating I have about a month until winter kicks in, I scout a nice area near the lake and plot out how I want the house. Deciding I want the front to face towards the village and back directly onto the forest to allow me a quick escape if needed and I won't need to drag the wood too far for construction. Plotting out a rectangle for a single room I decide it would be easier to dig for the walls and just use logs secured at an angle for the roof.

Nodding I go back to the cart to see what I have to dig with; the best tool available is the axe. Annoyed that I forgot a shovel I grab the axe and begin hacking at the ground. After a couple of hours of digging I have a rectangular hole about a foot deep. Stopping to wipe sweat from my brow my stomach growls and I remember I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. going back to my supplies I grab a strip of jerky to chew on while rethinking my priorities, _'it would probably be better to collect some wood to create a fire for tonight and see if I can catch some fish so I don't have to eat jerky all day.'_

Collecting wood for a fire is easy and using the flint I from the toolkit I had a decent fire going near the shoreline. However looking through my supplies I realize I don't have anything to fish with, looking towards the village the thought passes my mind of running over to collect a rod, but I dismiss the idea as by the time I could get there and back it would be dark and I would likely be seen and questioned for not attending training.

Grabbing a long stick mumbling "this will have to do" I sharpen the tip with my dagger and walk over to the water's edge. Fishing this way is not as easy as I first thought, but after some perseverance and a few falls in the water I start to predict the fish's movement and successfully catch half a dozen decent sized fish.

Storing the spares for later I settle down by the fire to eat. While watching the sunset I notice dark clouds starting to form overhead. "Great the gods really do hate me" I say to no one, as the rain starts coming down I slide myself under the cart bringing with me a stick that's partly on fire. While watching the larger fire get extinguished by the rain I quickly build a small fire at the edge of my cover. Rolling over to warm my back and hoping the area doesn't become too muddy I try to get some sleep.

-—―-—-

I'm running through the village, a large monstrous nightmare is right behind me, dodging to the left I run uphill towards home yelling "MOTHER", reaching the house my mother, Valhalarama, steps out and charges the nightmare hitting its head with her shield and lodging her sword into its left shoulder. Unable to pull the sword free she ditches it to put on some distance expecting it to flame up. However instead of using its fire cloak the nightmare grips her shield in its jaws ripping out of her grasp and firing point-blank into her chest.

"MOTHER" Waking with a start I sit up only to bang my head against something hard. Opening my eyes I see the underside of my cart and remember the events of yesterday. '_I wonder why that nightmare has come back now, guess it may be that I'm closer to enacting my plan.' _Deciding it would be best to get a move on as soon as possible I wriggle my way out into the sunshine. Looking around I thank Odin the hole I started digging didn't fill with water, just got a bit muddy at the bottom. '_Actually that might make things a bit easier.'_

Not wanting to get my clothing covered in mud I strip down to my underwear and step down into the hole. Without the grass layer the rain from the previous night had turned most of the soil to mud, shoveling it out with my hands was an easy task until about 3 feet down I encounter rocks. At first I took no notice of them until the sun catches on one leaving a silver glint in my eye, wondering if it could really be I grab the rock jump out of my hole and rush to the lake, washing the rock to show a good portion of it is iron ore, it would need some purification but I couldn't believe I've been walking over a vein for the last five years.

With the discovery of iron where I am digging I slow down my pace to collect, clean and sort the minerals in the rocks. By the end of my second day out I have a 4 foot deep pit, one end sloped inwards to allow access and a pair of trenches either side to support the roof and a pile of rocks containing various precious metals.

Heading back to my campsite I wash thoroughly to get the mud out of my hair and start a fire to dry off and cook a fish. While eating I check the sky to make sure the weather will remain fine for the night, smiling I settle in for the night. '_Things are starting to look up_.'

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Movie timeline comparison-

-hiccup has attended day 1 of dragon training, located and sketched toothless and discovered nothing regarding night fury's is known in the book of dragons.  
-hiccup has attended day 2of dragon training, met and begun trusting toothless and constructed first tail fin.

For reference -

"This is Norse"  
_'This is Thought''  
_"{This is Dragonese}"


	3. Chapter 3

I'm falling, it's a strange feeling, oddly calming, with everything fading to fire around me. All of a sudden large black jaws appear, rush forward and snap around my legs. I gasp and wake with a start and take a second to regain my bearings. '_ok, that dream was different.'_ Suddenly I feel something moving over my legs, sitting up I have to stop myself from scurrying and possibly agitating the small terror that is sitting on my lap staring up at me.

"Err. Do you want something?" I ask not really expecting a response but when the terror jumps onto my basket and start clawing at the latch I can only stare. _'Did it understand me or was that coincidence.'_ Annoyed at my lack of action the terror jumps on my lap startling me out of my stupor and runs back to the basket, I take a moment to wonder what it wants before I remember the extra fish.

Reaching over I drag the basket to my side, unlatch it and hold out the smallest fish, the terror sits up and locks eyes with the fish in my hand. '_I wonder how it's going to to eat this, the fish is almost as bit as he is'. _Tossing the fish as far as I can the terror chased after it. Glad to be left alone I retrieve another fish and start to cook my breakfast when I hear a strange slurping noise, looking over I see the terror trying to swallow the fish whole. Worried that he might choke I start to stand, only to see the terror bite down cutting the fish in half, dropping the tail and swallowing the head before looking at me smugly. '_Heh Chomp.' _Eyes widening and shaking my head, I return to my breakfast, realising I just named him.

When Chomp starts dragging the fishtail back my nervousness creeps back up, I have to remind myself that he has made no threatening actions towards me and to try to remain calm. '_How am I supposed to try reason with a nightmare when I'm scared of a Terror.'_ This doesn't work and soon chomp becomes aware of my state. Dropping the fish he edges slowly towards me, purring and curling up next to my leg, my nervousness disappears and I can't help but smile "everything we know about you guys is wrong."

The rest of the morning is spent planning how to get enough wood for a shelter, as I doubt just going at it with an axe would work, and getting used to chomp following me everywhere. After multiple attempts at felling a tree, including finding out the axe I took is blunt, it is only when Chomp starts sniffing around the steam engine the idea of attaching the saw to its piston comes to mind.

With the steam powered saw, felling the trees is done quickly, however clearing them of branches and preparing them has to be done by hand and is nowhere near as easy. By the time I have the sections cut down and nailed together for the roof and boards made for the floor, there is no longer enough light to continue working.

Setting a fish to cook by the campfire and settling down to rest after working all day, Chomp looks up from the perch he has taken on the cart and warbles towards the sections of roof. "I'm trying to build a shelter so we can survive the coming winter, if that's what you're asking?" he looks at me and nods. "Wait can you understand me?" he nods again, still not fully believing I set my hands on the ground like I'm leaning back, stare straight ahead and say in a monotone voice, "ok, if you can understand me, bite my right hand."

Chomp just looks at me for a second, seemingly annoyed, before scampering down the cart across my legs and starts nipping at my right hand. "OW, dammit, bad idea, ok I believe you now. You can go back to your perch now." Instead of going to the cart he just curls up on my lap. _'Hmm, perhaps I can ask Chomp if he knows anything about the raids.'_ "Chomp, can I ask, do you know why dragons attack our villages?" he warbles and shakes his head. "Ok, have you ever seen a village?" he makes the same warble and shakes his head again. "Um, have you even seen another human before?" again he shakes his head. "Then how can you understand me?" he begins a series of warbles clicks and growls while moving his head around. Sighing I make a mental note to try learn his language once I'm set for winter.

* * *

Waking up the next morning the first thing I notice is that there is no little dragons begging for a breakfast. 'H_e's probably of chasing a rabbit or something.' _After a quick breakfast I get to work using the carts crane to lower the floor boards into place at the bottom of the pit and set the roof sections in place above.

As I am securing the last piece of the roof I hear a voice, "nice place you've got 'ere." Startled I spin around but only get a glimpse of the one armed blacksmith before losing my footing and falling down the ramp and onto the wooden floor. Thankful that I wasn't injured I stand and make my way back up to greet my visitor.

"Gobber, what are. What are you doing here?"

"More like what are you doing here?"

"Me? I'm just out enjoying the last of this marvelous weather before winter kicks in. Not getting insulted or killed in dragon training"

"C'mon hiccup, what's wrong with learning to defend yourself against a dragon attack?"

"So, this year you're only teaching to survive dragons attack and the final exam won't include the death of a dragon?"

"Well, with the reckless aggression the other teens are showing we may need to put off the nightmare this year"

"Wait, what about Astrid, I thought she was trained to always stay calm in battle."

"She injured her foot in the first lesson. Nothing too bad, just a slight burn and it twisted when she landed. It does make it difficult for her to walk, But that hasn't stopped her from trying to get back into training, been bugging me every day."

"So how is my presence going to help any of that?"

"For one your father won't skin me alive for letting you skip out on training, plus I need a second hand in forge."

"I already made you a several new hands, and I don't care what stoic does, I'm not going back."

At this moment I spotted chomp coming towards us from the forest, Gobber must have seen him as well because he swapped out his hook for his axe prosthetic.

"Hiccup there's a dragon, get away."

"No." I run in between Gobber and chomp and lift him up to my shoulder.

"Hiccup, what are you doing."

"I'm defending an innocent"

"Dragons aren't innocent, they steal our food, attack and kill us."

"And we have made a sport of killing them. Not all dragons are part of those raids, I know chomp here isn't hostile." This gains a pause from Gobber.

"Is it the reason you left Berk?"

"No, he is not the reason I left, however he is a reason I won't return."

"There's more than one?"

"Dragon? No, my other reason to stay is because stoic has never considered my opinion in anything." There is an awkward moment where we both glance around the clearing. I decide to break it, "if there's nothing else, I need to get back to work"

"Right, work, just know your spot in the forge will always be available."

Turning away from the temptation of returning with Gobber I work on stoking my campfire to get a decent bed of embers for working metal on. Going through my pile of stones I select the flattest stone to act as my anvil and pile a few of the others to create a heat shield to protect the portable bellows from the toolkit.

"You know your house design in flawed." I look up to see Gobber is still here looking over the construction.

"What, why are you still here. If you don't leave now you'll be walking in the dark."

"Maybe I want to make sure my apprentice doesn't freeze to death. You're going to have problems when the snow starts, this ramp is going to just fill up and you will be stuck inside."

"I'll be adding a pair of hinged covers over the ramp"

"And when those get covered with snow?"

"I will connect the left cover to a winch that I can operate from inside"

"Was all that planned or did you only just think it up now?"

"Err, a bit of both."

"So, how can I help with your construction project?"

"You really aren't leaving until it's done, are you?"

"Nope, you can't get rid of me that easily."

The rest of the afternoon is spent completing the construction of the house and crafting a few pieces of furniture, a simple bed, a table and a couple of chairs.

Later, over the first supper inside my new house, Gobber is still trying to convince me to return to the village and attend dragon training. "Look until stoic is able to accept that I am unwilling to kill dragons, I will not be setting foot in the village of Berk."

"You know he'll be out here for you as soon as he returns."

"I don't care what he does, unless he willingly supports my plan to commune with dragons, and I have already found they can understand us, I will be staying here."

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Movie timeline comparison –

-Hiccup has had first flight attempt, had first win in dragon training and has completed first version of Toothless's saddle  
-Hiccup has added hooks and safety lines to the saddle.


End file.
